21 police dead after suicide bomber walks into Pakistani court

Pakistan is reeling this morning after a suicide bomber deliberately targeted law enforcement officials, blowing himself up outside the High Court in Lahore.

The bomber walked up to policemen stationed outside the High Court this morning and set off his explosives, killing 21 people, most of them police, officials said.

"Most of the victims are policemen. It was a suicide attack," said senior city government official Mian Ejaz. He said 60 people had been wounded.

City police chief Malik Mohammad Iqbal told Geo Television that all but one of the victims were policemen.

"It appears the bomber was on foot and, as soon as some policemen tried to stop him, he blew himself up," Iqbal said.

Policemen had gathered outside the court in central Lahore ahead of a protest rally by lawyers.

Television pictures showed wounded policemen being hauled onto stretchers and taken away by ambulance. Police caps, boots and riot shields littered the road.

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Pakistan has seen a wave of bomb attacks in recent months, many of them suicide attacks on members of the security forces and the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, but there has been none in Lahore, capital of Punjab province.

"I was in the court when the blast went off. It was a big bang," said lawyer Syed Zulfiqar Bokhari.